Broadway: A software architecture for scientific computing

Abstract

Scientific programs rely heavily on software libraries. This paper describes the limitations of this reliance and shows how it degrades software quality. We offer a solution that uses a compiler to automatically optimize library implementations and the application programs that use them. Using examples from the PLAPACK parallel linear algebra library, we present our solution, which includes a simple declarative annotation language that describes certain aspects of a library's implementation. We also show how our approach can yield simpler scientific programs that are easier to understand, modify and maintain. © 2001 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.